Think of your body as an airplane.\u00a0You are the pilot of your personal \u201ccraft.\u201d\u00a0 The part of you that lives in your brain and makes the decisions, has the memories and feelings, is your conscious pilot.\u00a0 You pilot your body in conscious decisions. But there is someone else in the cockpit.\u00a0 I call it your autopilot.<\/p>\n
The autopilot keeps your body running, doing things you don\u2019t know how to do, even if you could.\u00a0 I mean, do you know how to make your liver work?\u00a0 How to keep all your organs running together in sync?\u00a0 There are millions of things the autopilot in your brain keeps track of for you while you go about your conscious life. Some of those things directly involve how your body gains and loses weight.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s ride along with the autopilot and see your day from its point of view.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s morning and you\u2019ve been fasting since last night. Stomach sends word to the brain that it is empty and needs refueling.So the autopilot gives you a subconscious nudge and you realize it is time for breakfast and you are starved. But you are in a rush, so you stop by the doughnut shop on the way to work and buy a pastry.<\/p>\n
Now the stomach is satisfied.\u00a0 That pastry is full of sugar and refined flour.\u00a0 The stomach can digest that in no time and dumps the energy-giving sugar into the bloodstream.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeavy load coming through,\u201d your body signals the cockpit.\u00a0 \u201cBetter send out lots of insulin.\u201d<\/p>\n
The autopilot sends the message on to the pancreas. \u201cBig load of sugar just arrived.\u00a0 Pump out lots of insulin to handle it.\u201dThe pancreas buckles down and pumps it out.\u00a0Now, insulin is a crucial hormone. It\u2019s as if it has the key to open the microscopic cells to let in sugar to store it for energy.\u00a0 It gives the message, \u201cHere\u2019s your fuel. Don\u2019t waste it.\u00a0 Store up this energy.\u00a0 Make fat!\u201d \u00a0The cells cooperate and the body gets the message to slow down and conserve the newly acquired energy.\u00a0 The sugar is packed tidily away.\u00a0 Your energy level drops.<\/p>\n
And now you are hungry again \u2014 and tired.\u00a0 So you look around for something to eat to pick you up.\u00a0 Ah, bagels in the break room.\u00a0 You already ate a doughnut, but bagels are low fat, right?\u00a0 And you will eat it plain, without cream cheese, so it won\u2019t be too bad.So you chow down on the bagel.\u00a0 It is made of white flour which, again, is a snap for the stomach to digest.\u00a0 The bloodstream is flooded with sugar. The same routine goes into effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother big load arrived,\u201d the autopilot tells the pancreas.\u00a0 \u201cGet busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pancreas already had a big workout \u2014 but it shifts into high gear again and pumps out more insulin which again delivers the message, \u201cStore fat!\u201d<\/p>\n
By lunch you are ravenous again.\u00a0 You eat a sandwich made with white bread and some chips and drink a diet cola (since you are watching your weight).\u00a0 The stomach is having an easy day because none of this stuff is any work to digest.\u00a0 Lunch sugar arrives in the bloodstream lickety-split.<\/p>\n
The autopilot signals the pancreas \u2014 which is getting a little grumpy at this heavy load of work, but still makes more insulin. The insulin lets the sugar in and gives the message \u2014 store fat!<\/p>\n
Then by two o\u2019clock you are tired, can\u2019t concentrate, need a snack.<\/p>\n
You get the picture. All day your blood sugar peaks and drops as the pancreas pumps out massive loads of insulin to handle it.\u00a0 All day the insulin tells your body, \u201cMake fat. Store it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
You step on the scale and see that you\u2019ve gained yet another pound.\u00a0 Maybe your calories didn\u2019t even add up to an exorbitant amount.\u00a0 Surely, you think, that one doughnut didn\u2019t do me in?\u00a0 I\u2019ve just got the body type that puts on the pounds easily.\u00a0 Not fair!\u00a0And since it doesn\u2019t seem to really matter anyway, you go ahead and stop for another doughnut and the cycle begins again.<\/p>\n
After a while your body is well conditioned to gain weight.\u00a0 You have accidentally given it the message so often that it is really good at storing fat.\u00a0 Meanwhile your pancreas is wearing out and thinking about taking early retirement and you have pre-diabetes.<\/p>\n
Is there a way to avoid this sad scenario?\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 You keep your blood sugar level so you don\u2019t have those massive spikes of insulin.\u00a0 If you body doesn\u2019t continually get the message to store fat \u2014 it won\u2019t do it!\u00a0 The trick is to keep your blood sugar on a level plateau so you have a steady, small stream of insulin instead of a giant dump. That keeps your energy level stable and keeps you from feeling like you are starving.<\/p>\n
How do you do that?\u00a0 You eat foods that take time to digest.\u00a0 Those are foods with fiber, food with protein, and \u2014 surprise \u2014 food with fat!\u00a0 Did you know that the number of overweight and obese people in the US has doubled since the low fat diets came into popularity in the 1980s?<\/p>\n
There is a way of measuring how quickly food turns into sugar in your bloodstream.\u00a0 It is called the glycemic index<\/em>.<\/p>\n Check in tomorrow for more info about the index and foods that will help your autopilot give out the right message.\u00a0 You want it to say, \u201cBurn the fat\u201d not \u201cStore it up!\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, take a look at what you have on your plate today.\u00a0 If it is white, chances are it is going to send the wrong signal.\u00a0 Okay, cauliflower and cottage cheese are exceptions.\u00a0 But white bread, white potatoes, white rice \u2014 you get the picture.\u00a0 Eat foods with fiber and protein, and, yes, even some fat.<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t it amazing how our bodies know what to do and can carry on on autopilot while our conscious self is going on with other things?\u00a0 The more I learn about it, the more I see that it is just too improbable to happen by chance \u2014 even over billions of years.\u00a0 We are made by design, and the Designer is awe-inspiring!<\/p>\n Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/p>\n Susan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Think of your body as an airplane.\u00a0You are the pilot of your personal \u201ccraft.\u201d\u00a0 The part of you that lives in your brain and makes the decisions, has the memories and feelings, is your conscious pilot.\u00a0 You pilot your body in conscious decisions. But there is someone else in the cockpit.\u00a0 I call it your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[440,33,633],"class_list":["post-2029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eating-plan","tag-autopilot","tag-glycemic-index","tag-pancreas"],"yoast_head":"\n